Picking Up the Pieces
by PoisonousRedApples
Summary: Emma makes it back to Gold's shop in time to watch Cora die in her daughter's arms. When she finds out what caused the woman's death, she sides with Regina, hoping to comfort her in her time of grief. Starts during The Miller's Daughter.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: yeah, I know I'm a little late to the party with this one but I wanted it to be good. And I probably shouldn't have three multi-chapter fics in progress either, but that's what's happening. Sorry to love-order-chaos-repeat, I know I said I'd write it quickly but I'm a bit slow with my process.**

**Disclaimer: I unfortunately own nothing.**

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**Chapter 1**

Emma ran into the shop, praying that everyone would still be alive when she got there. "Please don't leave me." she heard Regina say as she walked into the room. They were on the ground, Regina cradling her mother's head as the woman took her last breaths.

"It would've been enough. You- you would've been enough." The older woman smiled through her pain, sighed, and went still in Regina's arms.

Regina's head went upward, fixing Snow with her classic Evil Queen death stare. "You did this." the brunette growled, tears streaming down her face. She stood up, lowering her mother's body to the ground, and pulled up to her full height, facing Snow head-on. "You did this." she hissed again in a low voice.

Snow froze. "No...Regina no...I never meant to hurt you...I was just thinking of Henry..."

"_Henry_?" Regina shrieked. "What does _killing my mother_ have anything to do with Henry?"

"Regina..." Emma stepped forward cautiously, pushing her mother aside to face the brunette. "What happened?"

Regina screamed, using her magic to throw Emma against a wall. David stepped forward, hand on his sword, ready to fight again, but the queen proofed him away to join Neal, who had been locked outside.

That just left Snow, standing defenseless against a woman who was determined not to let anything stand in the way of killing her. She conjured a fire ball, ready to hold it to the woman's face and listen to her scream. "Stop!" Emma yelled as the woman grabbed at her mother's short hair, pulling it back to expose her neck. "Regina stop this! Now!"

Regina froze, pain in her eyes. She wanted to do this, more than anything, but right now killing Snow wouldn't help her mend her relationship with Henry. _I'll have to do this later._

Throwing Snow to the ground, Regina turned to face Emma slowly. "Mom, leave." Emma's voice was hard, insistent.

"Emma..." Snow began.

"Now!" Emma screamed, practically forcing her and Rumplestiltskin out of the room to join David and Neal outside. As soon as they were gone, Emma put her hand on the other woman's shoulder comfortingly. "Regina," she said sternly, "what happened?"

Regina stiffened at the touch, then moved away, not wanting Emma to see the pain in her eyes. After a moment, she turned to the blonde and spoke. "Your mother tricked me." she said, wrapping her arms around her body protectively, as if to comfort herself. "She cursed my mother's heart, then convinced me to put it back in her chest, because it would make her love me in a way she never could with it stored away in a box." She stopped for a moment, the light in her eyes gone, her head hanging.

"So I did. I believed her. I shouldn't have, I should've known something was wrong. But I did it. I put the heart back in her chest, and for a moment she smiled, I mean _really smiled_, and I could see she was truly loving me for the first time in her life. I felt so happy."

"Then she began clutching at her heart...she just- fell, and I caught her. She was dying. Whatever your mother did, the life she took from my mother brought Rumplestiltskin back, it cured the poison. And it killed the last person on this earth who gave a damn about me."

She knelt down next to Cora's body, tucking a stray hair behind the woman's ear and smiling sadly. "I thought things would change, you know. I thought maybe we could try and be a family. I don't know why, it was naive of me to think that. But she actually loved me, she _smiled _at me, she laughed. There was something there I had never seen before. It gave me hope, only to have it ripped away."

The brunette broke down, laying her head on her mother's chest and weeping. Emma stood uncomfortably for a moment before making a decision. Walking around to stand behind Regina, she knelt down next to the crying woman and wrapped her arms around her.

Again Regina froze, but after a moment leaned her head against the blonde's shoulder, burying her face in the soft tresses. They stayed there for what felt like minutes before Regina pulled away, sniffing and attempting to fix her makeup, which was an absolute mess. "I, uh- I want to bury her."

Emma nodded understandingly. "Ok, I'll help you. Let's just...how do you want to get her out of here?" she asked carefully, not wanting to upset the woman.

"I guess we could take her out the front. My car is out there, so we could drive to the cometary."

Emma shook her head. "Are you sure you want my parents-"

"Fuck them. I just want to give my mother a proper burial. If they have a problem with that, that's just too bad, Miss Swan."

"Ok." Emma whispered. They picked up the body, Emma holding her feet and Regina holding the shoulders, and walked to the front of the shop. When she opened the door, Emma was met with an onslaught. "Emma!"

"Are you alright?"

"What the hell happened in there?"

"Is Regina-"

They all stopped when they saw what Emma was carrying, and Regina stepped out, her head hanging low. "What the hell are you doing helping her Emma? She's our enemy!"

"No she's not!" Regina's head snapped up when she heard the force in Emma's voice. "No, she's your enemy, and what happened in there was _your fault_." Both David and Snow froze, slack-jawed, and stared at their daughter.

"So here's what's going to happen now." she said, her tone never changing. "Regina and I are going to bury Cora. You are not welcome to come." She shot a look at Regina, who nodded her thanks. Turning back to her parents, she fixed them with an angry gaze. "And once we are done, I am coming to get my things, and Henry, and I am taking him home to live with his _mother_. You will no longer have visiting rights to him unless Regina says so, and if he tries to come see you, you send him home and notify me straight away." Her voice was hard, businesslike. "And you do not have the right to come visit, call, send cards, or anything. Now, do you have anything you would like to say to me?"

Snow stepped forward. "Regina-"

"I said me." Emma said sternly. "You don't have the right to speak to her either."

Snow stood firmly, shocked that her daughter was saying these things to her. "Emma why are you doing this?"

"Because I won't live with a murderer, and I won't have my son around one either." With that, she motioned for Regina to follow her, and together they made their way down the sidewalk towards Regina's car.

Snow's eyes filled with tears, and she turned to bury her head in her husband's chest. "We just lost our daughter," she whispered, "and our grandson."

"I know, but it'll be ok. We'll get them back somehow."

"How can you say that?" Snow asked, pulling away quickly. "Because Emma will have to forgive us eventually. We just need to give them time."

Snow nodded, and David put his arm over her shoulder, guiding her in the other direction towards their loft.

Rumplestiltskin and Neal stood slack-jawed, shocked into silence by the entire scene that had unfolded in front of them. "So...Emma's helping the evil queen?" Neal asked.

"Yes, it would seem so."

"And she's taking my son away from his grandparents."

"Yes."

"And I'm guessing I don't have a say in any of this, do I?"

"No, my boy, I'm guessing you don't." Gold turned to face his son, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, she'll come around to you too."

Neal started suddenly, as though remembering something important. "Wait, you're alright? How were you cured?"

Rumple shifted his feet nervously. "I tricked Snow White into taking Cora's life to save mine." He looked down, ashamed, afraid his son would not forgive him.

They stood silently for a moment before Neal finally said, "Ok, I think we should just sit this one out, let it blow over on its own, yeah?"

"Sure." Rumple smiled, clapping his son on the shoulder before guiding him inside to clean up the mess they had made.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry guys I really hate when people just update stories to put out an author's note but I'm doing it and you're really not going to like this...**

**I'm not going to finish the story. I'm sorry. I just don't have the time with everything that's going on in the next few weeks and I have zero idea how to continue it. I'm trying to concentrate on my other ongoing fic, Taking a Chance, and complete some requests I got a couple of months ago. I'll delete this story in a few days once I'm sure everyone who is subscribed to it has seen this message. Again, I'm really sorry. I hope you'll forgive me. Maybe go read Taking a Chance (which will be updated by June 7th) or some of my other fics and ****_please_**** don't get mad at me.**

**Love you all, and thanks for being such dedicated followers!**

**-Lyndie (PoisonousRedApples)**


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